Tire shop guys step in...

[PANDA]

So I acquired a new(er) set of summer only tires for my GTP. I wanted to get them mounted to my "summer" wheels, which are nothing but stock polished torque stars.

I took them over to a shop my dad does business with as they would give the best price. I had one simple request. Stick on wheel weights on the inside of the wheels, hide them as much as possible. Conventional clip on weights look retarded on polished wheels.

They did just, that but the weights look horrible. I got like 10 in a row in one location. Then random weights on out in the middle of nowhere. When two different style clip on weights on outside edge inside the wheel. (Every wheel looks different)

Now I know nothing about balancing tires, but it looks like these guys just closed eyes and stuck weights in places. It looks very BAD, and yes the weights will be visible when the tires are mounted to the car.

Now I would go back and bitch and have them clean this up a bit, but my dad gets alot of biz from these guys and that wouldn't be a good idea. They also really hooked me up on the price. So I guess you get what you pay for.

If it matters tires are BFG 245/50/16 and Torque Star 16X6.5 wheels.



Update: I took some pictures and removed the stick on wheel weights. (couldn't get the other ones off) After these get cleaned up nice I will take them to A&L to get mounted properly. Take a look at the pictures and tell me if you see anything wrong with this tire balancing procedure.

All the stick on weights I removed

Click to read more...

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Sounds like they got lazy and didn't try and spin the tire on the rim to help balance it better before going to town with the stick on weights. If they balanced it then it should be fine from a functional standpoint.

 

[Burtonrider10022]

pics?

 

[CrawlinTBSS]

sounds like your wheels where really off balance. but like someone up there said... coulda prolly turned the tire on the wheel to help change it.

 

[slowchevy]

like they're in the middle of the rim?

because they should be on the inside directly behind the spokes and the inside directly against the lip.

i would go and say "why are these weights everywhere."

 

[Smokinhot]

actually sometimes there are ways around that. If you have all the weight on one side, what they could do is spin the tire 180 degrees on the wheel. it may act as a counter balance and change the required amonut of weight needed

 

[C.Evans]

Usually when one part of the wheel ends up having a shit ton of weights they spin the tire 180* on the rim and then re-spin it on the machine to get a better balance.

Edit: already been stated.

 

[Smokinhot]

Usually when one part of the wheel ends up having a shit ton of weights they spin the tire 180* on the rim and then re-spin it on the machine to get a better balance.

Edit: already been stated.

:repost:

 

[Smokinhot]

I used to work at a tire shop, most people are lazy.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

I used to work at a tire shop, most people are lazy.

x2 no one wants to take the time to run through an offset balance routine where the machine will have you mount and inflate a tire, run it, break bead and rotate 180* retest and the machine will tell you where to rotate the tire to minimize balance weights needed.

not all machines can do this and we used to charge 50$ a wheel to do so. sometimes it was impractical to balance dynamically and so static balance is used

not to mention unless you spent the coin for good tires it was practically pointless and you still end up with 2+ounces of weight.

also sucks that you cant get actual lead stickon weights anymore only thoise larger galvanized steel weights.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

actually sometimes there are ways around that. If you have all the weight on one side, what they could do is spin the tire 180 degrees on the wheel. it may act as a counter balance and change the required amonut of weight needed

Repost

 

[Smokinhot]

ninja edit haha

 

[SinisterSHO]

Its a lot of work, but I would mount them on the car for a test drive, take it back to the shop and tell them it drives weird. Yeah, its a lot of work, but it might just help them fix it at least this once.

 

[G_T_O]

There is a setting on the machine where you can put the weights directly behind the spokes of the wheel so you don't see the weights. Guess they were lazy or didn't have that type of balancer!

 

[ef_vtak]

Sounds like they got lazy and didn't try and spin the tire on the rim to help balance it better before going to town with the stick on weights. If they balanced it then it should be fine from a functional standpoint.

i wouldn't rotate the tire unless the balancer required more than 4 ounces, any less and you can pound sand.

x2 no one wants to take the time to run through an offset balance routine where the machine will have you mount and inflate a tire, run it, break bead and rotate 180* retest and the machine will tell you where to rotate the tire to minimize balance weights needed.

not all machines can do this and we used to charge 50$ a wheel to do so. sometimes it was impractical to balance dynamically and so static balance is used

not to mention unless you spent the coin for good tires it was practically pointless and you still end up with 2+ounces of weight.

also sucks that you cant get actual lead stickon weights anymore only thoise larger galvanized steel weights.

if your going to a place that still does static balancing, you have bigger problems than seeing weights.

There is a setting on the machine where you can put the weights directly behind the spokes of the wheel so you don't see the weights. Guess they were lazy or didn't have that type of balancer!

if someone ever came back and bitched about how they could see the stick on weights i'd have told em to eat a dick.

 

[G_T_O]

i wouldn't rotate the tire unless the balancer required more than 4 ounces, any less and you can pound sand.



if your going to a place that still does static balancing, you have bigger problems than seeing weights.



if someone ever came back and bitched about how they could see the stick on weights i'd have told em to eat a dick.

Hey man I totally agree but there spending there money you gotta do it the way they want it

 

[ef_vtak]

if someone specifically voiced their concerns prior to the fact i would have had no qualms with it. but complaining after the fact for something that really isn't a big deal (especially during a busy day) really was upsetting...luckily in the four years i worked at a shop i only had one guy complain about balancing and he forgot to mention he only wanted tape weights.

basically my motto there was if you as a complaining customer really arent inconveniencing me for your own gain, i dont care ill rebalance your wheels all day for free, but ill be damned if your bs interferes with my handling of another customers car.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

i wouldn't rotate the tire unless the balancer required more than 4 ounces, any less and you can pound sand.

....when they pay for it, you do it, if they dont, they usually dont care about 6 ounces of weights hammered onto the lips either

if your going to a place that still does static balancing, you have bigger problems than seeing weights.

any balancer can do static, and for more than afew vehicles static (ie single plane) is fine.
all the tires on our semi are static...the steer's have 180k on em and still look fine
some rims dont allow for stickon weights to be put far enough outboard of the rim centerline so you stuck putting tons of weights on since they have little effect on the outter balance plane than weights positioned farther outboard...or using stickons on the outter lip

sometimes the best option is to static balance to get close then run a dynamic to finalize if your not gonna do the extra labor to "neutral" balance em

if someone ever came back and bitched about how they could see the stick on weights i'd have told em to eat a dick.

more than a few people will pay to have em their way....but those same people usually dont cheap out on tires/rims or the labor to install and balance em right.

ive had to chase down tons of NVH complaints over the years, a fair number of which are related to the tires/tread/balance of a "tireshop" job

 

[SinisterSHO]

i wouldn't rotate the tire unless the balancer required more than 4 ounces, any less and you can pound sand.



if your going to a place that still does static balancing, you have bigger problems than seeing weights.



if someone ever came back and bitched about how they could see the stick on weights i'd have told em to eat a dick.

You're probably the guy that used hammer on weights on my aftermarket 18" wheels.

When I called the manager back, "did you ask for stick on weights?" "No, but I've never seen weights on the OUTSIDE of aftermarket wheels"

They re-balanced them for free, because they were assholes.

 

[chris101]

Keep in mind that if you have TPMS, there will always be a lot of extra weight just opposite of that darn sensor! (why we hate TPMS and won't even deal with mounting it for ourselves with our own machines... and instead just disabled TPMS and used standard valve stems instead!)

 

[ef_vtak]

....when they pay for it, you do it, if they dont, they usually dont care about 6 ounces of weights hammered onto the lips either


any balancer can do static, and for more than afew vehicles static (ie single plane) is fine.
all the tires on our semi are static...the steer's have 180k on em and still look fine
some rims dont allow for stickon weights to be put far enough outboard of the rim centerline so you stuck putting tons of weights on since they have little effect on the outter balance plane than weights positioned farther outboard...or using stickons on the outter lip

sometimes the best option is to static balance to get close then run a dynamic to finalize if your not gonna do the extra labor to "neutral" balance em




more than a few people will pay to have em their way....but those same people usually dont cheap out on tires/rims or the labor to install and balance em right.

ive had to chase down tons of NVH complaints over the years, a fair number of which are related to the tires/tread/balance of a "tireshop" job

tires are last on nearly everyones mind, and even further down the list for them is installation labor. i have done countless aftermarket sets and of those maybe 5 had decent tires put on, of those no one gave half a shit how they balanced as long as the weights werent hammer ons

You're probably the guy that used hammer on weights on my aftermarket 18" wheels.

When I called the manager back, "did you ask for stick on weights?" "No, but I've never seen weights on the OUTSIDE of aftermarket wheels"

They re-balanced them for free, because they were assholes.

if your aftermarket 18s looked like shit and weren't taken care of I don't see the problem. but no, i would only put them there if they were there prior to rebalance or installing new tires. if any one brought in new rims i was sure to ask the customer.

Keep in mind that if you have TPMS, there will always be a lot of extra weight just opposite of that darn sensor! (why we hate TPMS and won't even deal with mounting it for ourselves with our own machines... and instead just disabled TPMS and used standard valve stems instead!)

tpms has very little effect on balance.

 

[PANDA]

ef_vtak

G_T_P maybe you can correct this issue? You are not that far from me. OR maybe I should goto A&L Autobody?

I will try to get pics.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

A&L will do it right the first time and only for $10 a wheel. Take them there.

 

[Jfrost]

Depending on how used these tires are it could effect the balance of the wheel. If the tires had some alignment wear it can cause the wheel/tire assembly to be more out of balance and require more weight. As others have stated, it could help to have the tire rotated 180* on the wheel to try and eliminate some of the imbalance. This is especially true with used tires depending on how evenly they are worn. Whenever we mounted used tires at the shop I worked at we would static balance a lot of the times, especially on truck tires.

It sounds like the shop you had mount/balance your tires could have missed taking some of the old wheel weights off, explaining the random stick weights in the middle of the wheel. Otherwise having 10 stick weights in a row isn't bad at all. If they're the 1/4oz like we had that would only 2.5oz on the outside of the wheel, not uncommon.

Now for the 2 clip weights on the inside, are they next to each other or in different spots? If they are next to each other theres no issue as they'll use different size/type weights to reach weight needed on the inside. If, however, the clip weights are in different spots on the inside, then they are improperly balance and should be done again. I can't tell you how many times I've corrected other shops blindly putting unnecessary amounts of weight on and counter balancing wheels. If this is the case I would go back and have them redo the wheel balance.

 

[PANDA]

Update and pictures in first post.